Well days four and five of training have come and each was completely different from the other. Day 4 was characterized by more and more sitting in the same room doing meetings and such which was really starting to wear on our staff and you could tell that through the faces of those in the room, we were learning A LOT, but just wanted a change of scenery.
Today was very different than yesterday. Our Development Director got us out of that room into a room with a lot of windows to do our bible study training for the day which was a welcome change. We then had lunch, went over recreation ideas, worked in the fuge store and then came back to the main room to work on bible study preparation. So the afternoon was spent moving around which was amazing!
Tonight we did our training for what we will be doing a week from tonight, Ministry Track Evangelism Training or MTET as I will refer to it. That training was wonderful and our Site Director did a wonderful job leading us through that. We ended that time with some beautiful moments of prayer as the staff prayed over lists of the sites we will all be serving at this summer. God is going to do such amazing things that we don't even expect this summer as He promises in Ephesians 3 and I can't wait to see what He does!
The MTET training ended and our bottled up energy exploded with a random dance break to Party in the USA, a great time of fun with my wonderful staffers who I have come to love so much the past few days. I look forward to many more moments like that as the summer progresses. God is Good!!!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
The First Few Days
Well, after about 8 hours of flights/layovers on thursday I arrived in Nashville Airport to be greeted by three fellow staffers. It was a great intro into the city. We then spent the first hour or so unloading everyone's cars at the dorms as they pulled in. We followed that up by playing a game that really got us to know one another's names very quickly and get real comfortable with one another. After this we had dinner together then had our first little training session followed by a "speed dating" game where I learned a lot about my fellow staffers.
Yesterday(Friday) morning we woke and embarked on an especially long day where we received the quiet time books we will be using this summer as a staff. The passage yesterday came from Romans 12 where Paul calls us to present our body as living sacrifices. The devotion really hit home the point that we are to let God's Word transform us from the inside out rather than letting the world transform us from the outside. We then heard from our staff coordinator a couple of times before going to lunch and retreating back to the staff office to do some work with our track groups. We spent our evening talking about our ministry sites as well as doing an intro with our bible study we will be teaching this summer. There we learned about the different age groups we will be teaching and what their learning styles are like. We ended our first full day together by having worship together by just singing a few songs and journaling, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my year.
Today was much of the same. A lot of time spent in the office listening to our coordinator and leadership staff. We did however play rec games where we had a lot of fun playing together and even had some bonding time during one particular game where you had to walk around and when the rec leader called a number you had to get in a group of that many people. Towards the end of the game she yelled 3 and there were four people left. One staffer created a great strategy by tackling another(much smaller) staffer figuring some one else would join, but instead we all just got a good laugh.
This is going to be a very exhausting 12 days and I need your prayers to get me through it. Feel free to send email or facebook encouragement, it would be much appreciated!
Yesterday(Friday) morning we woke and embarked on an especially long day where we received the quiet time books we will be using this summer as a staff. The passage yesterday came from Romans 12 where Paul calls us to present our body as living sacrifices. The devotion really hit home the point that we are to let God's Word transform us from the inside out rather than letting the world transform us from the outside. We then heard from our staff coordinator a couple of times before going to lunch and retreating back to the staff office to do some work with our track groups. We spent our evening talking about our ministry sites as well as doing an intro with our bible study we will be teaching this summer. There we learned about the different age groups we will be teaching and what their learning styles are like. We ended our first full day together by having worship together by just singing a few songs and journaling, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my year.
Today was much of the same. A lot of time spent in the office listening to our coordinator and leadership staff. We did however play rec games where we had a lot of fun playing together and even had some bonding time during one particular game where you had to walk around and when the rec leader called a number you had to get in a group of that many people. Towards the end of the game she yelled 3 and there were four people left. One staffer created a great strategy by tackling another(much smaller) staffer figuring some one else would join, but instead we all just got a good laugh.
This is going to be a very exhausting 12 days and I need your prayers to get me through it. Feel free to send email or facebook encouragement, it would be much appreciated!
Monday, May 24, 2010
The Theme Verses
Here I sit in my mom's classroom at school waiting for her to finish. Had lunch with a friend and did some shopping for things i need before thursday. The last few emails from the camp staff are coming in and its getting me very excited. Now that I'm away from Auburn my thoughts turn to nashville more and more as the days go by. As I've been preparing for bible study God has been laying great things on my heart that I look forward to sharing with my students in just a couple of weeks. The theme verse for the week is Ephesians 5:15-16:
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Wow....talk about a slap in the face look at the beginning of verse 16: "making the most of every opportunity". When was the last time we made the most of every opportunity? Or maybe the easier question to ask is when was the last time we didn't WASTE an opportunity? I know that's the better question for me. And this part of the verse is a big part of my prayer life before going to camp. As a staffer at Fuge, there are going to be a lot of opportunities to talk to people in my groups as well as kids at the community center we'll all be working.
It is my job as this verse says to make the most out of EVERY opportunity. Whether its sitting with a random church group for breakfast, playing with a kid at the community center, or talking to one of my students during the afternoon free time it is my responsibility to always bring those conversations back around to Christ and encourage them along in their faith. This is a responsibility I take seriously and can not wait to carry out. The next post will probably come from Nashville on Thursday!
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Wow....talk about a slap in the face look at the beginning of verse 16: "making the most of every opportunity". When was the last time we made the most of every opportunity? Or maybe the easier question to ask is when was the last time we didn't WASTE an opportunity? I know that's the better question for me. And this part of the verse is a big part of my prayer life before going to camp. As a staffer at Fuge, there are going to be a lot of opportunities to talk to people in my groups as well as kids at the community center we'll all be working.
It is my job as this verse says to make the most out of EVERY opportunity. Whether its sitting with a random church group for breakfast, playing with a kid at the community center, or talking to one of my students during the afternoon free time it is my responsibility to always bring those conversations back around to Christ and encourage them along in their faith. This is a responsibility I take seriously and can not wait to carry out. The next post will probably come from Nashville on Thursday!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Leaving Auburn
Auburn has become home the past three years, I haven't been away from it for more than a week at a time since the summer of 2008. I told people good bye as they left for the summer last year, but never did I have to leave it for this long. Last summer at Auburn was life changing and one I won't soon forget which is why leaving is so hard. God showed me so much last year being here and I grew so much so fond memories are attached to auburn summers.
I know though, that God has even bigger things planned for His glory this summer. So, though I am a little sad today leaving my friends and the town i've come to love so dearly, I know that this will pass and that the next 10 weeks of my life will also be life changing and that God is going to do wonderful things with me this summer and here in Auburn.
I know though, that God has even bigger things planned for His glory this summer. So, though I am a little sad today leaving my friends and the town i've come to love so dearly, I know that this will pass and that the next 10 weeks of my life will also be life changing and that God is going to do wonderful things with me this summer and here in Auburn.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
What is M-Fuge?
Seven Days from now I will be preparing to land in Nashville and begin what promises to be one of the greatest summers of my life and certainly one that I am most excited for. M-Fuge has been a major part of my spiritual growth over the years and something I have always dreamed of being a part of from the staff side. For those of you that are unfamiliar with M-Fuge let me take a moment to explain it for you:
M-Fuge is a six day long camp for 7th Graders all the way up through college and includes of course a lot of Adult Chaperones. The First Day of Camp is exciting for campers as they arrive, move into the dorms, go to an Opening Celebration that is much like a Pep Rally where they at the end find out what group they will be spending their week with. From there they begin their time with Ministry Track Leaders like me whose job it is that first night to plan our ministry for that week as well as teaching them how to share the gospel.
Days 2-5 all have the same schedule. They wake up, eat breakfast, go to bible study where they have quiet time and then are lead in bible study by their track leaders, from bible study we will go to our ministry site. Our ministry site is a Community Center in the heart of Nashville which has a lot of kids for us to play with and share the gospel with. The Community Center has a pool and some basketball courts so some awesome water and other games will be played! After track time we come back for some free time which the staff uses to get to know our campers even better! From Free time they have dinner, worship, a time to decompress, and then a night activity which is always great!
The last morning we wrap up in bible study and then they have a closing celebration.
It is a very exciting week and I will get to do it for 7 weeks, I can hardly wait!
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